Computing devices, software applications, software services, databases, and other computing resources that make up a computer network may be discovered and the relationships therebetween may be mapped. These elements of the network, as well as the relationships, may be stored as configuration items in a database. The stored configuration items may later be retrieved and used to generate a visualization of a state or arrangement of these elements within the managed network. Discovering a computing device, database, software application, software service, or other computing resource involves developing software processes that are capable of interacting with the devices, databases, applications, or services in order to gather information needed for detection, classification, and/or identification thereof.